"I don't know what was pieced together or put together. All I know is that my point was, the best thing I'd done as a father is be sure that my kids have a good mother," Pitt tells Matt Lauer in the interview. "That's all I was, or am, trying to say. It has no reference to the past. And I think it's a shame that I can't say something nice about Angie without Jen being drug in. You know, she doesn't deserve it."

Pitt was quoted by Parade as saying, "I wasn't living an interesting life myself. I think that my marriage had something to do with it. Trying to pretend the marriage was something that it wasn't." He later released a statement to clarify those comments, writing, "It grieves me that this was interpreted this way."

The latter sentiment is mirrored in his interview with "Today." "I don't want them to say anything bad like that about Jen. She's a dear friend of mine," he said, adding that Aniston has not reached out to him about the Parade interview.

During the chat, Pitt also got the chance to open up about the Oscar buzz around "Moneyball." "It remains a great piece of material for me that I got to take on. And we're all — it's too early to talk about all that other stuff," Pitt said. "It's all good fun if your number comes up, and it's even more fun when your friend's number comes up."